Eagles of Claw Mountain 1: Into the Sea
by Ruby Salvatore
Summary: In another land...far from where the Guardians lived in the Great Tree...another legend is born...the legend of Claw Mountain. Frath is a young bald eagle who was raised by wolves. He is happy living among the wolves and he loves the Pack like any wolf would. But the tales and legends of Claw Mountain inspire him. Now Frath must make a decision;to stay with his Pack, or to leave.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

It was dark. But the Bald Eagle heard the eagles from miles away. "Wake up", he whispered to his mate, "They're here. They're coming." Immediately, his mate leaped up, talons sharp, wings ready.  
"Are we going to fight?" She hissed.  
"Not you. You have to get our son. He needs you. I'll hold off the others as long as I can." Sharn told her, "you must take him, and go without me."  
"I can't leave you!" She exclaimed.  
"You mustn't argue. Just go, and take our young one with you." The Bald Eagle sighed, "Go quick, before you are seen."  
"I can't leave you!" She hissed, her heart leaping with fear. She knew The Bald Eagle was trying to help her, to save her...and their son. She knew this day would come. But she had never imagined she would have to leave her mate to save their only chick.  
The sound of wings pounding the air began to come closer.  
"You have to go!" The Bald Eagle hissed.  
His mate did not argue, but she took their son in her talons and began to raise her wings in flight. Suddenly, a large black eagle had swooped down and grasped the young bald eagle in her talons. As she began to take off in flight, The Bald Eagle flew at her, claws out, and sliced down on her right wing. The black eagle screamed in pain and dropped the chick back into its nest. The Bald Eagle's mate flipped around, talons clawing and flying at the black eagles face. She grasped the young chick in her claws and began to fly away from the battle, away from the black eagles, away from her mate she lived so much...  
Suddenly, the mate of The Bald Eagle felt a searing pain driving down her shoulder. She turned to see her shoulder covered with blood and she felt the beat of flapping wings just behind her. Gasping, she turned completely around in midair just to see a giant black eagle swoop towards her...no...not towards HER but towards her chick. The Bald Eagle's mate knew she was going to die. She knew she was going to loose her son...so she let go of the chick. The young eagle began to fall further and further down into the Sea...

**Chapter 1**

The young bald eagle gasped for breath as he hit the water. It was dark. He couldn't swim, he couldn't fly. The waves kept splashing up over him, it was getting in his beak and in his eyes, making them water. He splashed and tried to swim against the waves. But he wasn't strong enough and soon his head was dunked under the waves. He fought the waves and reached the surface again. He took a deep breath of air before another wave pushed him under the water again. The young eagle was growing weak. He struggled to keep his head above water, flailing his wings uselessly. As his head dunked under water for the third time, he used his legs to spring up to the surface again. He was starting to keep his head above water a little more easily now. His legs were paddling swiftly underneath the waves. But even his legs were beginning to tire now and he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. The young eagle closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the water rushing around him. Then he opened his eyes again. There was something there...a raft! A tiny wooden raft was floating not far away from him. He sighed in relief and began to paddle towards it. His legs were aching now and he struggled to reach the tiny raft in front of him. He reached out a talon when he got close enough, and hurled himself on top of it. He let himself fall onto his back and gasped in the air. His whole body aching, the young eagle closed his eyes...

The small eagle opened his eyes. How long had he slept for? It was daylight now and the sun shone down hard on the young eagle and his small wooden raft. The young eagle first forgot where he was. At first he thought he was back in his nest with his mother and father. Then he remembered. A band of eagles had attacked their nest. He remembered being safely in his mother talons, then the next moment he was falling, hearing screams and screeches as he fell. Then he had landed in water.  
He looked up and was aware of one thing only,  
'Food! I need food!' He thought.  
He looked up and around him. He was in a raft in the middle of water. He didn't know how to catch fish! His parents had only ever brought food to him in his nest at home. Frath wondered how to catch fish, but he thought that catching a mouse might be easier...  
Mice!  
But there were no mice in water, even a young eagle like him knew that. He was now aware of another thing:  
Land. He needed to reach land.  
He sat up and the eagle stared in shock across the vast sea. There was no land in sight! All his hopes were crushed.  
"No.." He whispered in despair. He fell back onto his back, feeling the wooden raft sway with the waves beneath him. He sighed and decided to sleep more. Maybe when he woke up next he would be closer to land, maybe he would be close to something...anything that could help him.

The next time the young eagle woke was when he heard the cries of another bald eagle high above him. Immediately, the young bald eagle began to yell out to it,  
"Help! Help me! Please!" But his screams of desperation were all in vain as the larger eagle continued to fly away, unaware of the young eagle lying on a raft in the Sea, becoming closer and closer to death...

The young eagle woke in the night. He was hearing something, he was feeling the raft move...but it wasn't moving with the waves anymore...it was being pulled...pulled along ground.  
At first, the young eagle gasped in amazement- he had reached land at last! But then he heard growling and he flinched. He looked up at the sun and saw a furry, gray face with bright green eyes leaning over him.  
Wolf.  
The young eagles mother had warned him about wolves. She had said that they ate eagles who were injuries or dying, but most of the time they couldn't catch eagles because they couldn't fly like eagles could.  
But the young eagle couldn't fly either.  
Suddenly, he realised in horror that there was not one wolf, but more then three wolves, pulling the wooden raft onto the shore.  
The young eagles heart raced. He had no chance now. He was too weak, tired and numb to make a run for it and the wolves would outrun him either way. The young bald eagle shut his eyes tight and waited for it to be over...as a huge dark gray wolf towered over him, fangs bared and eyes aflame.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to whoever is reading this! If you have time, please leave a comment so I can see your opinion on the story :)**

"Move aside!" The howl of a wolf cut through the air and a dark gray wolf shouldered his way to the front of the crowd of wolves.  
"What have you found?" He asked a smaller black she-wolf with blue eyes.  
"It's a young eagle." The black wolf quickly explained, "Falon found it on a wood raft in the water."  
The larger dark gray wolf with green eyes pushed past her and found Falon at the edge of the water. The wolf was bending over the eaglet, fangs bared, orange eyes blazing.  
"Falon!" The Alpha's howl shocked the wolf and Falon nearly jumped backwards in fright.  
"Alpha." Falon bowed his head, "This eaglet...it came to us...should I kill it?" His bark stopped abruptly. The Alpha was staring at him wide-eyed, "Kill it, Falon?" He asked, "Why would we kill such a small eaglet? I think we should help it."  
"But..." Falon's eyes were full of dismay, "But the Pack's hungry!"  
"An eaglet this small surely cannot be a proper meal, Falon." Alpha said to him, "Besides, you know what we owe the eagles...after everything they have done for us. They fought for us, remember?"  
Falon narrowed his eyes, "We didn't need the eagle's help." He growled, half to himself, "We can fight our own wars."  
Alpha sighed, "And how many wolves would have died if we had fought the war on our own?"  
Falon did not answer.  
"This eaglet needs a home." Alpha whispered and he turned his attention to the eaglet who was still sprawled out on the small raft. Carefully as so not to damage it's wings, Alpha bent over and picked up the eaglet in his jaws. He walked past Falon, who did not speak a word, and towards the black she-wolf.  
He set the eaglet down at the kind wolf's paws,  
"Sasha, can you help this eaglet? His wings are damaged and maybe broken. I know you're good with medicine, and I know you're goods with pups as well. Care for this eaglet for now. It won't be forever...it will just be until he gets better, then we will decide what we should do with him. Is that ok, Sasha?" But the black wolf was already picking up the eaglet, softly in her jaws.  
"Alpha," she said, "I promise I will care for this young one as if he was my own."  
There was something in her eyes, something that made Alpha know he could trust her with the eaglet. He watched as Sasha turned away, with the eaglet clamped softly between her jaws.  
Alpha blinked and began to turn away. The crowd of wolves was still there. They were unaware of what was going on- their ears pricking in curiosity and their eyes were big and round. As the Alpha met their gaze, the pack began barking questions,  
"What's the eaglet doing here?"  
"Are we going to eat it?" A puppy called out. It's mother silenced it with a soft swat of its head.  
"Where's Sasha going with it?"  
The Alpha sighed and then began to speak.

"Stay still." Sasha held the eaglet down with her paws. She knew how to mend the broken wing. She needed to budge the bones back into place. The black wolf placed one paw on the eaglet's stomach feathers and with her other paw, she held the broken wing down and slid her paw up the broken wing.  
She heard a crack as she moved the wing back into place. The eaglet let out a shriek in pain and gasped.  
"It's ok." Sasha nudged the young eaglet and took her paw off its wings, "You won't be able to fly for a while yet." She told him.  
The eaglet just looked at her and blinked. Sasha nudged the eaglet again.  
'Can you stand up?' she asked in her mind. She didn't say it out loud though, she just nudged him. The eaglet seemed to begin to understand. He slowly moved his wings across the mossy of Sasha's den. He lifted himself up and balanced himself onto his talons. He didn't look natural though, because his wings were slouched on the ground. His wings were numb with pain and he couldn't hold them up.  
Sasha walked up to him and began to wash him. Her tongue strokes along the eaglets head made him feel soothed. He felt safe now. He felt happier then he had in days. He felt loved by this wolf, and he loved her as his mother.  
The black wolf looked into the young bald eagles eyes. She couldn't care for him without calling him by something. It didn't feel right. She had to give him a name.  
A name...  
She had named many pups in her lifetime, but she had never named an eagle. She looked at the roof of her den and began to think.  
Then a name came to her, a name that she thought fitted this eagle perfectly.  
Frath. For in ancient Wolf, Frath meant Water.  
And Frath himself had been found by the side of the water, on the shore of the Frosted Sea.


	3. Chapter 3

Frath opened his eyes. He had been sleeping in Sasha's den all night, and now it was morning. It had been a couple of weeks since he had been found on the wood raft floating in from the Sea. Back then he had been afraid of the wolves. But now he was beginning to slowly being accepted into the pack. He liked all the wolves in the Pack, especially Alpha and Sasha. Alpha had accepted Frath since the day he was rescued, Sasha had known him since then too. Frath loved Sasha, as much as a pup would love his mother. And Frath felt like he was closer to Sasha then any other wolf in the clan.  
"Frath! Come on! We're learning how to hunt as a pack today, remember?"' Marla and Mist, two of the wolf pups from the Pack, came bounding into Sasha's den. Sasha was out on a hunt so Frath was the only one in the den.  
"Marla! Mist!" He exclaimed with excitement. Frath was beginning to learn how to speak now- when he had washed up on the shore he hadn't been able to say a word.  
He stood up right as the two wolf pups leaped at him. They jumped on him knocking him over. Frath playfully shoved Marla away with his talons and he shook off Mist. The two light gray pups jumped up in excitement,  
"I can't wait! We finally get to train to hunt with the Pack!" Marla said. She and Mist were both a few weeks older then Frath. But the young eagle had been given a chance to train with Marla and Mist today. Frath felt hi s heart beating fast in excitement as he, Marla and Mist let the den.  
"Marla, Mist, Frath!" Alpha called, "Are you ready for your first ever hunting training?"  
The three of them immediately started calling out in excitement.  
"Yes we're ready!"  
"I can't wait!"  
"So excited!"  
"Alright, alright settle down." Alpha said, "Now I need you to watch what happens." He flicked his tail and five more wolves from the pack slid out from the trees and, in perfect formation, they all took their places behind Alpha. Frath watched in amazement as the wolves flicked their tails to each other and moved their heads slightly to communicate.  
Then Frath noticed that Alpha had flicked his tail towards the three young ones. Marla and Mist noticed too, and then the two young pups slid into the formation as if they had done this hundreds of times before.  
Frath realised that Alpha was beckoning Frath to join the wolves in the formation. So he slowly moved towards the hunting group. He went to stand next to Marla but as soon as he took position, another lighter gray wolf nudged him more into the middle.  
"Over there." The gray wolf whispered to him.  
Frath held his breath as he moved over a bit. The wolves around him were shooting uncertain glances at him. He let his breath go as he found a spot closer to a darker wolf. When Frath was in his spot, Alpha began making tail signs. The other wolves reacted to every twitch of his tail. Sometimes it meant to spread out, sometimes it meant to close in.  
Frath realised that he would have to watch and learn rather then be told directly what to do. The young eagle saw that Marla and Mist were beginning to understand some of the tail signs- the two sisters were trying their best to flow with the pack. Frath was starting to understand what the signs meant too and by the end of their day, he had gotten to understand some of the tail twitches and the head moves.  
Frath was tired when he got back to the den and was thankful when Sasha was there waiting for him there, with love and kindness in her green eyes and moose meat under her paws. She had gotten him food so he didn't have to go get it himself.  
"Thanks." Frath said as he lay down in his mossy nest.  
The black she-wolf pushed the meat over to him. Frath ate the food and then began to clean his feathers. At least now he no longer dragged his wings around on the ground as he walked. He had learned to walk upright with his feathered wings tucked neatly behind him. He fell asleep quickly after his tiresome day of learning how the pack hunts.

That night he dreamed of an eagle screeching in fury as she was attacked by a huge dark eagle. The eagles furious screech was strangely familiar...but he couldn't put a talon on who it was, and why the eagle in his dream was familiar at all. Frath tried to get a better look at the eagle, to see if he recognised it.  
But everything was dark, and as he tried to find the furious eagle he began to realise he was flying around in circles. He began to panic. He didn't want to find that eagle anymore, he just wanted to fly away, back to the wolf pack. But as he tried to fly back, the screeches and screams of the female eagle echoed all around him. His heart was racing as he turned around and became face to face with a huge black eagle, eyes burning red.

Frath awoke in the middle of the night, his heart racing. As he calmed himself down, he told himself it was just a dream and none of it was real. But as he tried to sleep again, the horrified screams of the eagle still rang in his ears, and the burning red eyes of the dark eagle still remained in in his mind.


End file.
